Many devices exist today that allow a user to capture a variety of multimedia content including pictures, video and audio recordings. These devices have become increasingly mobile and compact to provide users the freedom to capture content in a variety of places and circumstances. For example, tourists often take pictures of scenery and people (e.g., themselves) to remember a vacation or trip. With the increasing popularity and widespread adoption of mobile telephones, the attractiveness of integrating multimedia capture capabilities with mobile telephones has grown. Such an integration of technologies permits a user to carry and utilize a single mobile device to both wirelessly communicate as well as to capture multimedia content. Thus, users are able to take a photograph or record a video segment and immediately transfer that content to a friend or family member via a wireless or cellular communications network. The subject of a photograph may also request that the photographer transfer the photograph to the subject for approval or previewing.
In one instance, a tourist may ask a friend to take a picture of him in front of the U.S. Capitol Building. After taking the picture with her own mobile device, the friend would have control over whether the picture is saved, deleted or used. As such, the subject of the photograph would be unable to dictate whether the photograph was suitable or appropriate for printing or saving. Even if the photographer transmitted the picture to the subject's mobile device, the subject still could not control the use or existence of the photograph on the photographer's device. In an alternate situation, a mobile device user may inadvertently capture a stranger while photographing a scene. The stranger would have no notice that such a photograph was taken and thus, no control over the use or distribution of his or her own image. For a variety of reasons, including security and privacy, the subject of any form of multimedia content may want the ability to exercise control over his or her image.
In addition, the transmission of captured media, especially larger files such as videos, can result in the quick depletion of a receiving device's storage resources. Thus, a receiving party would have to constantly manage the files and storage on his or her mobile device to maintain storage capacity. Furthermore, a large media file also requires more resources and time to transmit and render. As such, not only must a user wait for a file to finish transferring, the user would also have to wait while the media is rendered on the receiving device. Oftentimes, a receiving party is only receiving media content to determine whether or not he or she wants a copy. In such cases, the transfer and processing times of large media files may be wasted if the receiving party determines that he or she does not want the media.
For the foregoing reasons, a system and method for managing use of captured content is needed.